Android

JLab’s Go Sport Plus earbuds are built for workouts, with over-ear hooks that help keep them in place while you run, lift, or move through a busy gym session. They are also on sale on Amazon right now, making this budget-friendly pair even easier to pick up. See the deal at Amazon

TL;DR Google released the Pixel Tablet back in 2023, and sales have since dried up. Plans for a Pixel Tablet 2 were supposedly canceled. Despite this, Google keeps posting job listings looking for “Pixel tablet” engineers. Pixel phones continue to give us reason to pay attention to them, year after year, but Google hasn’t quite been able to recreate that same magic for the Pixel Tablet. Earlier this month, we saw Google take a pressure washer to its online store, scrubbing it clean of not just the Pixel Tablet itself, but also its entire “Tablets” section. But if Google is just so utterly, thoroughly done, then why is the company actively recruiting engineers to work on Pixel tablets? Google’s always on the lookout for talented new staff, so the company’s regularly posting detailed job listings soliciting qualified applicants. For instance, Google would like to hire an engineer for the Pixel Core USB team, working on the software stack that powers USB connectivity between Pixel devices and all of our favorite accessories. In that posting, the company specifically mentions development “across Pixel phones, tablets, and accessories” and references “current and upcoming Pixel phones and tablets.”

Running out of battery when you are out for the day is a pain, especially if you use your phone for maps, photos, tickets, and messages. The UGREEN MagFlow power bank is built for that kind of busy day, and there is a solid Amazon deal on it right now. See the deal at Amazon

TL;DR While the Googlebooks won’t arrive until early October, we can now offer a good look at the platform’s first-party text editor app. We got the app to run on an Android phone and tablet, revealing some of its features in the process. Users will have extensive syntax-highlighting options, a find-and-replace function, and much more in the Text app for Googlebooks. Following months of rumors and leaks, Googlebooks are finally official. Pre-orders are live now, but you’ll have to wait until October 4 to get your hands on the new laptop range. We’ve already seen how features like Continue On enable seamless switching between a Googlebook and a phone, but what about apps? We can now exclusively reveal how a common Googlebook app will look and function, but not in the way you’re probably expecting. You’re reading an Authority Insights story. Authority Insights brings you all the latest exclusive reports, app teardowns, leaks, and in-depth tech coverage from the Android Authority team that you won’t find anywhere else.

The Oura Ring 4 just dropped to $319.99 at Amazon, down from its $399 recommended retail price. That saves you $79, a 20% discount off the RRP, and it is the best price we have seen since Prime Day. See the deal at Amazon

Credit: Ryan Haines / Android Authority TL;DR Motorola is expanding Qira to more compatible devices. Qira will become available on select devices across the Signature, Edge, and Razr lines. The company’s AI experience is arriving through its Android 17 rollout. Motorola began its rollout of Android 17 back in August. While some select models now have the stable version of the latest major OS update, the rollout is still underway. Once your device upgrades to Android 17, it will gain a number of improvements, like a refreshed Quick Settings panel and cross-platform Quick Sharing. You can now also add Motorola Qira to that list. Today, Motorola announced that it is expanding Qira to more compatible devices. This includes select devices across the Signature, Razr, and Edge families. The company says owners of these devices should be on the lookout for Qira after updating to Android 17.

Nothing Ear (a) is a budget-friendly set of wireless earbuds from Nothing, and they bring a lot of the brand’s style and audio features without a big price tag. They stand out right away with Nothing’s transparent design and a lightweight bubble-style case, and there’s a solid Amazon deal on them right now, too. See the deal at Amazon

TL;DR OPPO has launched the new Find X10 Pro Max, marking it as the world’s first phone with three 200MP cameras. It also supports an optional Hasselblad Teleconverter Kit, extending its zoom by up to 200x. The Find X10 Pro Max is powered by the new MediaTek Dimensity 9600 Pro SoC, with an 8,000mAh silicon-carbon battery, and supports 80W wired and 50W wireless charging. While pre-orders for the phone have already gone live in China, OPPO has confirmed that the Find X10 Pro Max will launch globally later this year. OPPO has officially launched the Find X10 Pro Max in China, crowning it as the world’s first triple-200MP camera phone. The device arrives in the middle of a crowded September 2026 flurry of Pro Max flagships, following hot on the heels of the Apple iPhone 18 Pro Max and the vivo X500 Pro Max. This time around, OPPO is leaning hard into extreme imaging hardware, massive battery endurance, and of course, new silicon. The marquee feature of the OPPO Find X10 Pro Max is undoubtedly its rear camera system. OPPO has packed three separate 200MP sensors into the phone’s redesigned camera island: a 200MP primary sensor with an f/1.5 aperture and OIS, a 200MP ultrawide shooter offering a 124° field of view, and a 200MP periscope telephoto unit with 3x optical zoom and CIPA 7.5-stop optical image stabilization. Hasselblad color calibration returns, backed by the company’s upgraded LUMO Color and LUMO Native Light and Shadow engines, alongside a dedicated physical Snap Key for fast shutter action. Around the front sits a 50MP selfie shooter with 4K 60fps Dolby Vision support.

Credit: Ryan Haines / Android Authority TL;DR Google has been fined €403 million ($462 million) for misusing European users’ location history and web browsing activity. The Irish DPC, acting on behalf of the EU, said Google stores users’ location data, violating the GDPR. It also said the data could have been used for targeted advertising or to influence users’ decisions. Google hasn’t had a particularly rewarding 2026, and its legal troubles don’t seem to end. In July 2026, the European Court of Justice held that Google had violated its dominant position by pushing its own services and reserved its previous judgment in the landmark antitrust case, along with a penalty of $4.67 billion. Later that month, the European Commission fined Google close to $1 billion for allegedly violating the Digital Markets Act (DMA). While this was followed by some relief from previously suggested extreme measures in the United States vs. Google lawsuit regarding its monopoly in digital ads, Google has now been hit with another fine of close to half a billion dollars. Google has now been fined €403 million ($462 million) by the Irish data privacy watchdog Data Protection Commission (DPC) for allegedly mishandling data related to users’ location history. The DPC, acting on behalf of the European Commission, said that Google infringed on the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) by:

TL;DR Nothing OS 5.0 Open Beta is rolling out to the Phone 4a, Phone 3a Pro, and Phone 3a. The Android 17-based update adds a major visual refresh, split notifications, new widgets, camera upgrades, and more. There’s only one week to join the beta, or you’ll have to wait for the stable release in November. Nothing is sticking to its Android 17 schedule, and three more phones are now joining the party. If you own the Nothing Phone 4a, Phone 3a Pro, or Phone 3a, you can finally try Nothing OS 5.0 — but you’ll need to move quickly. The company announced earlier today that the Nothing OS 5.0 Open Beta is now rolling out to all three devices. The update weighs 2.82GB on the Phone 3a Pro, so you may want to find a reliable Wi-Fi connection before hitting the download button.

Credit: Vonder TL;DR Vonder has announced the launch of its debut collection of smart glasses. These smart glasses come in six frame shapes, three colors, and no camera or display. Pre-orders start on September 28, 2026, with prices starting at $299 and shipping beginning in November. Despite the success of the Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses, a stigma hangs over the social media giant’s eyewear. Questions about privacy have been a common theme, not only for those around the user, but also for the user themself. If those concerns are the one thing keeping you away from this genre of wearable, you may be interested to learn about the new smart glasses from Vonder. Founded by the co-founders of XR glasses brand Viture, Vonder is unveiling its debut collection of intelligent eyewear. According to the company, these smart glasses were designed first and foremost to be everyday glasses. As a result, they’re lightweight (under 30g) and made to the wearer’s prescription (from single vision and progressive to Transitions and gradient tint lenses). There are six frames to choose from and three different color options.

TL;DR Adobe has finally released the Premiere mobile app on Android, about a year after releasing it for iOS. The video-editing app supports all the functions of its iOS counterpart, including a wide range of templates and several generative AI editing tools. Adobe Premiere for Android is free to download, but requires a device with at least 5GB of RAM and Android 13 (or newer). Video editing program Adobe Premiere has been around for a while, but it took the company until last year to launch a dedicated mobile app. This app was limited to the Apple iPhone, though we recently learned that was about to change. That day is finally here as the Premiere app officially makes its way to Android. Users can now download the Adobe Premiere app for free from the Google Play Store, though certain generative AI features will require a subscription after the free credits expire. In any case, Premiere on Android will offer granular video editing capabilities, along with a trove of other features at no cost.

Credit: Stephen Radochia / Android Authority TL;DR Leaker and display enthusiast Ice Universe says that Samsung leads in Privacy Display tech by using four-way baffles to block viewing from the top, bottom, and sides, whereas HUAWEI and Xiaomi only block horizontal views. However, Samsung’s aggressive hardware implementation causes notable off-axis brightness loss, reduced image clarity, and even eye strain and nausea for some users. Competitors like Xiaomi balance privacy with convenience by adding software features such as voice commands, location triggers, and shoulder-surfer detection. Samsung was the first Android brand to incorporate a Privacy Display, starting with its flagship Galaxy S26 Ultra earlier this year. Other Android brands have now caught up, with the HUAWEI Mate XT 2 and the Xiaomi 18 Pro series introducing their own spins on the Privacy Display. Despite the feature’s proliferation, it seems Samsung will still hold on to its crown as the most private Privacy Display implementation. Leaker and display enthusiast Ice Universe said on X that Samsung’s hardware implementation for Privacy Display remains the private solution currently on the market, outperforming rival solutions from both HUAWEI and Xiaomi. The crux of Samsung’s advantage lies in its ability to hide content from the top and bottom, as well as the sides, whereas HUAWEI and Xiaomi can only hide content from the sides.

Credit: Tushar Mehta / Android Authority TL;DR Samsung will reportedly add a security chip to the batteries in some of its smartphones. This verified battery system could help customers avoid third-party batteries, which might not offer the same safety guarantees. This also comes years after Apple introduced its own battery verification system and parts pairing practice. Apple has long used a verification program for iPhone batteries, allowing you to quickly check if you have a genuine battery in your smartphone. Now, it sounds like Samsung could bring a similar verification system to Galaxy phones. The Elec reports that Samsung will add a security chip to the batteries in some of its phones. The company will apparently add this chip to batteries inside upcoming mid-range phones, including the Galaxy A series.

Credit: Xiaomi TL;DR Xiaomi 18 Pro and 18 Pro Max launch tomorrow with a rear screen and dual 200MP cameras. Xiaomi has detailed the two 200MP cameras, including specifications for both sensors. The primary 200MP sensor is a tad bigger than the Galaxy S26 Ultra’s main camera — as well as what is rumored for the S27 Ultra. After dazzling us with a better foldable than the iPhone Duo, Xiaomi is all set to launch its next Pro-grade flagship phones tomorrow. Ahead of the launch, the company has been sharing glimpses of what the upcoming Xiaomi 18 Pro and 18 Pro Max have to offer, and the better implementation of the privacy display is already leaving quite an impression. Ahead of the launch, Xiaomi is also revealing details about the dual-200MP camera setup on these Pro phones, including sensor specifications and an AI-backed enhancement feature that makes images look similar to ones shot with actual cameras. Xiaomi recently shared details of the Leica-backed “dual 200MP ultra-clear” camera system on the upcoming Xiaomi 18 Pro and Pro Max phones. The phone is slated to come with an iPhone 17 Pro-like design, but instead of a dormant camera island, Xiaomi utilizes it for a secondary display. The display also wraps around the two 200MP cameras — the primary as well as the periscopic telephoto units, while the third ultrawide-angle sensor is placed below the screen.

TL;DR Google Messages is testing a search homepage that previews shared photos, videos, links, and places. Search could soon list every matching text and let you search within a specific conversation directly from the main page. Google is also testing swipeable media results and redesigned pages for in-chat searches, links, and places. Digging up an address, photo, or years-old texts in Google Messages can quickly turn into a search expedition. But Google appears to be working on a substantial search redesign that puts more of your shared content up front, lets you search within a specific chat from the main search page, and even shows every matching message without sending you hopping through conversations. You’re reading an Authority Insights story. Authority Insights brings you all the latest exclusive reports, app teardowns, leaks, and in-depth tech coverage from the Android Authority team that you won’t find anywhere else.

Credit: Andrew Grush / Android Authority Last spring, I wrote about how my family finally gave the iPad a try after more than a decade with Android tablets. At the time, I said we might still get newer Android tablets as backups eventually, since we have multiple family members. That happened earlier this summer, when we picked up the Onn Core 7-inch tablet, primarily for my youngest son. I was so impressed that my wife and I ended up with an Onn 11 Pro about a month later. While Onn tablets aren’t for everyone, I’ve found they’re a perfect fit for my family. In fact, I likely won’t buy an Android tablet from any other OEM going forward unless it can match Onn’s value.

The new animated menu makes Good Lock look way more polished than last year. Credit: Joe Hindy / Android Authority One UI is already one of the most feature-rich Android skins out there, so I get why Samsung doesn’t ship Good Lock modules by default. Doing that could make things unnecessarily overwhelming — more so than One UI already is. Still, there are a few Good Lock features I genuinely think deserve to be built into One UI, because they’re just that good. And no, I don’t think you need to be a power user to appreciate them. Here are a few of my favorites.

Credit: Aamir Siddiqui / Android Authority TL;DR Xiaomi has open-sourced its omnimodal AI model capable of generating interactive 3D worlds, such as games, from text or visual prompts. Xiaomi’s MiMO-V2.6 Pro is claimed to be the most capable open-weight model on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index benchmark. Along with open-sourcing it, Xiaomi is widely releasing desktop apps for Windows and Mac. Smartphones and tablets are likely to come to mind when you first think of Xiaomi. If you’re savvy enough, you might as well know about the company’s diverse portfolio of home appliances and its recent ventures into the EV space. But it might surprise you to learn that Xiaomi is also developing its own frontier AI models to take on the likes of DeepSeek, Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, and the others. Xiaomi has just released the latest version of its omnimodal AI models — MiMo-V2.6 Pro and MiMo-V2.6-Flash. These models can be used for textual, visual, and video-based applications, as well as for coding. While the MiMo-V2.6 Pro is Xiaomi’s most capable model, Flash is designed for lower costs and swift responses.

Earlier this month, Google added something to Google Messages that’s … less than ideal. Using the app’s business chat feature, Google has started sending texts to Google Messages users about new Google Messages features. There are a couple of ways to look at this. On the one hand, if you don’t regularly follow news/updates about Messages, this could be a fine way to stay informed about what’s new. However, if you’re like me, you might see this as nothing but annoying spam.

TL;DR A new leak has revealed the RAM and storage configurations of the Galaxy S27 series. The Galaxy S27 series could come with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage in the base variants. The Galaxy S27 Ultra could feature up to 16GB of RAM and 1TB of storage. The leak also states that Samsung might switch to UFS 5.1 storage and LPDDR6 memory. We may be months away from the expected Galaxy S27 series launch next year, but the leaks keep on coming. We’ve already seen leaked renders of the Galaxy S27 Ultra and found battery and charging information on regulatory websites. Now, a new leak has shed light on the storage and memory specifications for all phones in the Galaxy S27 series. Leaker Lanzuk, writing on the Korean blog Naver, shared memory and storage configurations they claim to have obtained from Weibo and Korean industry sources. Here are the configurations for each phone in the Galaxy S27 series:

Credit: Joe Maring / Android Authority TL;DR Android 17 QPR2 Beta 5 includes code for a “Unlock with Google Account” feature, which would let users recover locked-out phones without performing a factory reset. Google previously allowed pattern unlock resets using Google account credentials until Android 4.4, but later removed the feature, forcing everyone locked out of their phone to factory reset. The unreleased feature appears to be optional, which would balance the needs of everyday consumers and security-conscious users. Google released Android 17 QPR2 Beta 5 last week, and we are digging into the release to see what the company has in store for us. We’ve now found clues of a new feature in the works that could soon let you unlock your Android phone with your linked Google account credentials if you ever forget your PIN or password, which could finally save users from the nuclear option of a factory reset when they are locked out of their devices. You’re reading an Authority Insights story. Authority Insights brings you all the latest exclusive reports, app teardowns, leaks, and in-depth tech coverage from the Android Authority team that you won’t find anywhere else.

Apple’s foldable iPhone is no longer a dream. John Ternus, Apple’s new CEO, officially unveiled the iPhone Duo at the company’s September 9 launch event. The iPhone Duo isn’t available to buy just yet, and we’ll have to wait another month before it hits store shelves. But its arrival means Samsung, for the first time in years, has some genuine competition in the foldable phone market. Samsung launched the Galaxy Z Fold 8 a couple of months ago with a similar wider, passport-style form factor. And after spending the past week studying both foldables in detail, I think I’ve made up my mind. If I were spending my own money on a foldable phone right now, I’d still pick the Galaxy Z Fold 8.

Credit: Adamya Sharma / Android Authority TL;DR The vivo X500 Ultra is apparently in the works and could launch in March or April 2027. Vivo allegedly revealed the phone’s existence and launch window, but we were unable to verify these claims. History suggests that the X500 Ultra could have more impressive camera capabilities than the standard X500 phones. Vivo just launched the X500, X500 Pro, and X500 Pro Max phones in China yesterday, but recent history suggests that the X500 Ultra is also in the works. Now, the company may have officially confirmed the existence of the Ultra phone, along with a launch window. According to leakers Smart Pikachu and Digital Chat Station on Weibo, Vivo apparently revealed that the X500 Ultra was coming, and would launch in March or April next year. A screenshot posted by Smart Pikachu purportedly shows a vivo executive confirming a launch window. You can view the machine-translated screenshot below.

TL;DR T-Mobile and Jio have achieved the world’s first 5G standalone roaming connection. It could enable seamless transfers between the two carriers’ networks when roaming. 5G standalone roaming could also enable better enterprise and AI applications. T-Mobile was one of the first carriers to roll out a standalone 5G network and has steadily improved its 5G speeds and availability. In fact, some reports say it’s one of the best-performing US carriers. While T-Mobile may have made some controversial decisions regarding its legacy plans, the Un-carrier now proudly boasts yet another achievement. T-Mobile has announced that it has achieved the world’s first 5G standalone roaming connection in partnership with Indian carrier Jio. 5G standalone (SA) networks use a dedicated 5G architecture end-to-end and are usually faster and have lower latency than 5G non-standalone (NSA) networks, which rely on 4G core infrastructure.